ABSTRACT
The Medici women have received equally little attention in the voluminous literature on Medici artistic and literary patronage, with the possible exception of a small amount of work on Lucrezia Tornabuoni's artistic and literary patronage and just recently on Alfonsina Orsini's patronage of art. When the Medici women participated as part of a group of like-minded women as happened with Clarice and Alfonsina Orsini later in the century, the extent of their involvement is much more transparent. The Medici women's support for convent building was particularly apposite as it was also a traditionally acceptable form of women's artistic patronage. The Medici women's patronage of religious institutions had another motive. It involved benefiting a number of religious institutions within their neighbourhood as well as within the wider city and Florence's subject territories more generally. The family's penchant for working as a team with common interests further facilitated the women's involvement in acts of territorial patronage designed to strengthen the Medici regime.
